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Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Chapter 8 focused the improvement of writing in elementary grades with the use of word processor. Teachers and schools are looking of ways to improve their writing lessons and styles. This chapter talks about text to table conversion which I thought to be a very innovative and possibly very beneficial way of teaching writing skills.

While I was shadowing, I actually witnessed a teacher using the smartboard to better enhance writing skills. She had placed sentences in to a table and then used the tools of the smartboard to point out sentence structure and sentence errors and corrections. It proved very helpful and the children in the classroom had fun while learning.

It is important for teachers to keep up with not only the new and different ways to teach writing skills, but how to teach these writing skills, for the skills and technology keep evolving.

Chapter 8; Word Processing to Improve Writing

This chapter stressed that by using word processing, younger students can greatly improve their writing. Younger students need time to learn the organizational patterns of writing. This is especially important now that state testing is increasing. It is also important that childrens' voices are not stifled and that it communicates well.

I thought it was very interesting reading about how schools are using computer software to help students organize their thoughts. The color coding of all of the components of a well written paragraph also struck me as a good idea. I can remember writing journal entries everyday in first through fourth grade. We also color coded our entries, but with highlighers. Word processors can make this process much easier and quicker. This is very helpful because it helps student realize where they can make improvements in their writing and whether it is organized well. It was also interesting to read about the text to table conversion. Students can convert their paragraphs to one-column tables where each sentence has its own cell. This seems like a very effective way for students to learn. Students can assess their writing even further and add more sentences whenever they feel necessary in a new column.

This reading really opened my eyes to new ways of using technology in the classroom. I had never even thought of using word processors as a way to improve the organizational skills of childrens' writing.